Electronic Voice Phenomena (EVP)

The Electronic Voice Phenomena was reputedly started in the late 1950's, when, Fredrich Jurgenson, a Swedish Opera Singer, Painter and Film Producer, was recording bird songs in the Swiss countryside near his villa. When he played the tape back, he heard a male voice discussing 'Nocturnal Bird Songs' in Norwegian. At first, Jurgenson just assumed that he had picked up a radio frequency broadcast on his tape recorder. But then he thought, that it seemed strange that the broadcast should be about birds songs, the very thing that he was recording.

Curiosity awakened he went back out to the countryside and made more recordings. Of course nothing was heard during the recordings but when he got back, he could hear lots of talking, some of which was of a personal nature, and, referring to both him and his dog using their nicknames. Obviously this could not have been pure chance, and Jurgenson continued making recordings. He even received information on how to improve the reception and receive more voices in this manner. After several years of recordings, Jurgenson wrote and released a book in 1964 entitled "Voices from the Universe".

After Jurgenson's book, thousands of people all over the world took an interest in EVP, and tried to replicate the spirit voices. Some were successful while others got nothing and eventually gave up. As Jurgenson found out, there is no requirement for specialised equipment to capture voice, only a tape recorder and a microphone and of course plenty of patience. It can take months of trying to capture a voice and because the voices are often quiet and faint, the use of headphones might be helpful when playing back.

It wasn't long before Dr. Hans Bender, a German parapsychologist and Dr. Konstanin Raudive, a Latvian psychologist took up an interest in this new form of spirit communication. Raudive had had an interest in all things paranormal all of his life, especially the possibility of life after death. When he read Jurgenson's book, he was so impressed that he arranged to meet with him and eventually they worked together to study EVP and make recordings. Initially their work never gained much success, although they claimed that they could hear very week and muddled voices. After numerous times of playing the voices back they began to understand what was being said, but nothing was very conclusive. However, Raudive released a book in 1971 called "Breakthrough", after which the phenomenon has been reffered to as "Raudive Voices", even though the original findings were those of Jurgenson.

From the Mid 1960's to the early 1980's , The Metascience Foundation, based in Franklin, North Carolina, conducted research into the development of a system of communication with the dead. George W. Meek and William J. O'Neil, developed a machine which they called "Spiricom". Unlike EVP where the investigators have to wait to play back their recordings, the Spiricom gave instant two way communication, in the same way as direct voice in the seance room does. Five machines were reported to have been built and named Mark 1 to Mark 5 respectively. Mark 1 failed to produce any communication except for uncontrollable buzzing and popping noises. Mark 2, allegedly had more success. The first coherent voices were heard but difficult to understand. Nevertheless, one of the communicating spirits informed them that the machine was very difficult to operate and needed modification.

Then came MArk 3, 4 and 5, which, after some changes and additions of microwave emitters with better shielding communication improved. The best reported contact took place on 16th April 1980, when Meeks and O'Neil were able to talk to a Dr. George Jeffries Mueller, who died on 31st May 1967 from a heart condition. Dr, Mueller was very helpful to the team, and advised some fine tuning of the Spiricom which helped. But still the spirits found it difficult to use and communication did not last for very long. Eventually even Dr. Mueller faded away and the Spiricom research ended in 1982.

EVP recordings are said to be increased by using a sound source placed with audible distance of the microphone during the recording. The sound source that seems to help most is the "White Noise" that you get when you tune a radio to a point between stations, you get a mushy noise. The radio needs to be tuned so that only the white noise is audible, the theory being that this provides an acoustic basis for the voices to be constructed from.

The Sceptics, and there are many, believe that the interpreted voices are only what the person hearing them, wants to hear, stating that the phenomenon of EVP is an example of "Pareidolia", in which a vague or random stimulus is mistakenly perceived as being recognisable.

Irrespective of what the sceptics say, we know one thing for sure, "Spirit" tell us that EVP is a fact and that it will follow on to become, with improvements being put into place, something great and believable for all to enjoy. "If man was meant to fly he would have wings" remember that saying? Man went on to land on the Moon, and our ancestors would never have believed it possible. Everyday, man and science reaches out and discovers something new, so why, is it always the scientist who chooses to dismiss spiritual phenomena, with all of its counterparts, as being unscientific? Even the Catholic church has begun to recognise these facts and took part in a major investigation into EVP.